LOWELL -- Say this about Raymond Riddick Jr., the executive director of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation: He's honest.

While acknowledging all the good the foundation has accomplished over the last 14 years, Riddick said it mustn't be satisfied with the status quo and that it must broaden its geographic reach, and hopefully grow its solid endowment -- which is at its highest amount ever.

Directors have charged Riddick with doubling the foundation's $25 million endowment over the next few years. To do that, he needs to snatch a page from his playbook of his father, the legendary Lowell High School football coach, and get more people, a lot more people, to buy into the program and support it.

"We need to do something that will make us a little different," said Riddick, who has been at the foundation's helm for less than two years, following a period of instability at the top. "This will be an evolutionary thing, not a revolutionary thing."

Formed 14 years ago as a regional philanthropic agency to serve the needs of individuals and nonprofit agencies in nearly three dozen communities in Middlesex and Essex counties, the foundation was overseen by the same executive director for about a decade.

A few years go, its reins were put in the hands of respected Chelmsford businessman John Thibault. By all accounts, Thibault was exceeding everyone's expectations as executive director until he suffered a stroke in 2009 while visiting Paris.

Advertisement

Thibault was never able to return and resigned as executive director about a year later. Riddick, who lives in Westford, was hired in June 2011.

John Chemaly, a foundation director and chairman of its marketing subcommittee, said doubling the endowment is a realistic goal that is "absolutely doable."

"We just to have to educate the right people about what it is we do," said Chemaly, co-founder and president of Trinity EMS.

Last year for example, the foundation ventured outside the city it knows best and held an event called Communities in Bloom at the Tewksbury Country Club. James Cook, executive director of the Lowell Plan, attended and remarked to Chemaly: "I don't know anyone here."

Precisely. That's just the kind of crowd the foundation hoped to attract: folks who know little about what the foundation does but hopefully left impressed and with a commitment to get involved.

Susan Winship, the foundation's new development director, is putting her connections in several Metro-West communities to the test on April 27 when the foundation takes on a bus tour of Lowell potential donors from communities like Lincoln and Brookline.

"We're trying to cultivate new friends," said Winship, of Lincoln. "It's exciting to sell the city and sell the community foundation at the same time."

Winship was hired six months ago to replace LZ Nunn, the former city employee who is now studying at Harvard University in a fellowship program. The foundation is also planning a gala night in May when it awards scholarships to Lowell High School graduates and an early fall bicycle fundraiser.

There is a lot to sell, here in the Merrimack Valley and elsewhere. In 2011, the foundation awarded more than $916,000 in grants, scholarships and agency endowment distributions. A statement by Riddick and Board of Directors President Steven Joncas in the foundation's latest report attests to the foundation's fiscal health. It reads, in part: "Central to our mission is the effective stewardship and investment of our donors' funds. We are pleased to report that the foundation continues to be fiscally strong and is well-positioned to serve our community for generations to come.

"Through your generosity and the strong oversight of our investment managers, as of March 31, 2012, the foundation's assets totaled $23,275,752. This is the highest asset base in the history of the foundation."

Its return on investment, said Riddick, was about 11.5 percent, or about $2 million. The foundation works with four investment firms, whose performances are reviewed quarterly.

Riddick also plans to organize a "Youth in Philanthropy" program at Lowell High School, in which he hopes to instill in the city's youth the value of "giving back" while fostering the next generation of givers.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.